Was enjoying a most lovely day while
visiting in Modesto California. I was trying out some old lenses and filters
on my camcorder/binocular combo set-up and really having fun watching the
sun go down. I had just attached an older 3X optical conversion lenses
(from yesteryear) and was preparing to videotape the sun setting.
Nice cumulus clouds were gently lying on the horizon in the distance and
I knew I would get some good footage. The only doubts I had was in
this old lenses and thought I'd better check it out first beforehand to
be safe. I always align my camcorder lenses to reflect exactly what
I see in the binoculars, this way I can view thru them and if something
gets my attention, I can just flip the record button on the camcorder to
capture what I'm viewing in the binoculars without moving my eyes away.

I was just getting ready to start my
alignment and aimed my binoculars at these trees in the distance to be
a centering point for both devices. As I was center targeting, an object
of some form with some length to it in an upright stance was traveling
to the right of my POV (Point of View). I instantly flicked on the record
button of the camcorder and started taping.

I have to apologize as I didn't get everything
aligned up nor had a chance to turn on the "anti-shake" mode
prior as I was caught a bit off guard. Needless to say the footage is quite
shaky even on a tripod. Nor did I have the tension set for tilting
and panning ready for any form of recording on the tripod.

The object was going slightly into the
blowing wind which in my mind eliminated the chance of it being a balloon.
While observing it moving slowly to the North (I'm facing West at the time),
I could see that it had some length to it despite the distance from the
camera. It resembled a large piece of pipe or a section off an aqueduct.
It's trajectory was smooth and slow moving (evident despite all my shakiness).
It appeared to maintain the same constant elevation throughout my viewing
and capturing of footage. In the last two minutes it's speed appeared to
have increased by maybe three or four hundred

percent. Usually an object as it gets
further away would give the illusion of slowing down, this was not the
case here. It also had the appearance of a shape change shortly after recording
and passing in front of some trees to a more spheroid shaped object. This
could also have been caused by a change in the angle of the object itself.
For the continuation of the capture it maintained this appearance. I can
only guess that this is a result of it perhaps leveling off and moving
away from my POV. Clip number #2 illustrates this new shape and also notice
that the trees are leaning to the left as they are being blown by the Northern
wind. So the object is indeed going against and into the wind.

I'm not sure what I captured, but as
always I am thankful that I did videotape something unusual. I've attempted
to stabilize the footage somewhat to keep the object nearest the center.
Once you see the frames go everywhere, you'll understand why I felt compelled
to do this to clip #1.

Included: Two Clips, two zoomed and cropped
frame grabs and one POV graphic

Date and Time: May 22nd, 2006 7:54pm
to 8:05pm (PST)

Location: Modesto, CA.

Weather: Fairly clear blue skies with
a northwesterly wind

AirTraffic: None till about 5 minutes
later

Object: Cylinder or perhaps a cigar,
later it's appearance was that of a circular object

Color: With my seeing only the backside
(from my pov) it's appearance was dark in color

Speed: Indeterminate, but as things generally
appear to have velocity when viewed thru a zoomed lens, it is this researchers
opinion that it was very slow moving.

Distance: Unknown, but would speculate
that vehicles traveling on highway-99 would have been able to see it if
they looked upwards and to the left of them (heading north towards Sacramento).